History YMMV / DragonQuestVIII

* IdiotPlot: The Purgatory Island chapter, which only happens because the party let some rank-and-file Templars manhandle them off a floating island, into a boat, and into a pit of a prison cell. They're quite literally the strongest characters in the entire room, and have zero reason to go along with it. The party has no business there, except to witness Rolo's redemption arc.

* It's a good thing that the game didn't allow The Hero to pick up the sceptre containing [[spoiler: Rhapthorne]] otherwise the world would be dealing with a ''very'' powerful threat.

** Jessica has knives, which on top of being bad, mesh horribly with her. Knives give the following buffs: some ailment {{Useless Useful Spell}}s (rather than any of the myriad good ones the series has), attack output up, and the ability to use swords. Even staves are better, as they give her legitimately useful status spells like Kasap and Bounce.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[AncientEvil Rhapthorne]], while the characters aren't initially aware of it, [[BigBad is present from the beginning to the end]], actively causing all the calamities in the game. His most heinous acts include turning the residents of the castle Trodian into [[AndIMustScream immobile plant people]]; killing the kind old woman in cold blood, after forcing her to come out by holding her son hostage; and ordering the murder of an unborn child of the Godbird Empryea. He also did most of his work by performing GrandTheftMe, which trapped the victims of that into [[AndIMustScream mental torture]].]]

* HilariousInHindsight: In the [=US=] version, when reaching max tension with the hero, the form he would take appeared to be a pink haired Super Saiyan. Flash foward 12-13 years later, and [[Anime/DragonBallSuper Super Saiyan Rose]] debuts.

* ThatOneLevel: The Dark Ruins, due to being full of DemonicSpiders and GoddamnedBats who take a bit of abuse before going down even if you are overleveled and you outgear the enemies. Several of which have defence so high they take very little damage from physical attacks, can take a good chunk out of your characters health or harass you with hit-all attacks, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking in the 3DS version, enjoy going into narrow hallways to make you fight them.]]
** In the Monster Arena, the B rank, where the luck required to win in the arena becomes especially apparent. It's a massive stepup in difficulty from C rank, with the first battle being especially rough; it's against a team of Dragurn, Tyrantosaurus, and Snapdragon, all with really high stats, while the Dragurn can breathe Inferno to hit your entire party up to 80 damage, the Tyrantosaurus also has Inferno and can critical hit, and the Snapdragon can attack twice while also being able to immobilize one of your monsters for a turn and cast Kafrizzle. Then the subsequent two rounds aren't really any easier. Additionally, the player has a lack of good options for team composition at the point they can take on B rank without being at a really high level; Talos is more than strong enough for the rank regardless of the hero's level, and Hackzilla will be strong enough if the player is at a decent level while also possessing a valuable fire resistance for that first round, but the player won't be able to get a good option for a third teammate, with the available options being underpowered until the hero's level approaches the 40s and the monsters with valuable support skills being heavily prone to the IdiotBall. Clearing B rank however is highly rewarding, with it giving players the ability to have a second team, thus giving the ability to call out two monster teams a battle, which helps tremendously against bosses (something you're going to really want before the [[ThatOneBoss Dhoulmagus]] DifficultySpike). Clearing B rank also makes some really good special monsters appear, which is why some players think the A rank and even the S rank is easier than B rank when they'll have better options available. The B rank's rewards incentives players to beat it as soon as possible, adding to the frustration in trying to beat it.

* CompleteMonster: [[AncientEvil Rhapthorne]], while the characters aren't initially aware of it, [[BigBad is present from the beginning to the end]], actively causing all the calamities in the game. His most heinous acts include turning the residents of the castle Trodian into [[AndIMustScream immobile plant people]]; killing the kind old woman in cold blood, after forcing her to come out by holding her son hostage; and ordering the murder of an unborn child of the Godbird Empryea. He also did most of his work by performing GrandTheftMe, which trapped the victims of that into [[AndIMustScream mental torture]].

** [[spoiler: Estark's]] appearance in Memories Lane as the final opponent for a good reason. Aside from being a regular superboss in the series, he also fits the "memories" theme of Memories Lane because he doesn't actually remember anything about his past.

** Memory Lane's difficulty works from a story and gameplay perspective. It makes sense that all of them are hard to defeat because it's how the party remembers them. In addtion, the dungeon serves to challenge the player further since they're good enough to easily take down the [[BonusBoss Dragovian Lord's]] various [[PaletteSwap forms.]]

* MagnificentBastard: Marcello, for a while. Despite acting mostly for petty reasons, you almost have to respect him for [[spoiler:becoming Lord High Priest in a matter of weeks, effectively playing politics with the entire Church and ''winning''. Not to mention resisting Rhapthorne's possession, because he's just that focused. Not even one of your party members could do that.]]

* PolishedPort: The 3DS remake received some flak for some minor censorship and not having the original games orchestrated music, but is mostly loved for adding in two more party members, fixing several balance issues in character stats and equipment, fixing some of the plot holes in original story, adding in two new dungeons, adding a ton of quality of fixes to address the many annoying aspects of the original, and even putting in a whole new ending.

* PolishedPort: The 3DS remake received some flak for not having the original games orchestrated music, but is mostly loved for adding in two more party members, fixing several balance issues in character stats and equipment, fixing some of the plot holes in original story, adding in two new dungeons, and even putting in a whole new ending.

** Jessica has knives, which on top of being bad, mesh horribly with her. Knives give the following buffs: some ailment UselessUsefulSpells (rather than any of the myriad good ones the series has), attack output up, and the ability to use swords. Even staves are better, as they give her legitimately useful spells like Kasap and Bounce.

** Yangus deserves special mention due to the fact that Axes are essentially his only ''good'' skill tree due to the abilities being good ''and'' Axes being the most available weapons for him. Sure, he gets a rather hilarious attack if he maxes out Humanity, but to a lot, his low MP really doesn't justify investing so much, especially when he can learn some very useful axe abilities instead.

* FanNickname: Captain Douchebag for Marcello, as heard in a LetsPlay of the game.

* AccidentalInnuendo: Morrie has to know what he's doing when he says a few of his lines.
-->'''Morrie''': "You know what they say: You never know the depths of your own passion until you play with yourself."\\

* ValuesDissonance: The 3DS changes: the censorship of Jessica's outfits were actually because what the game could get away with in 2004 versus 2015 has changed. Nintendo of America also made things ''more'' risque in Club Puff Puff...

** Dominico seems designed to be as dislikable as possible - the characters in-universe don't even like him that much, but when [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone David still risks his life to protect him and he learns the truth]], he immediately changes his ways.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: While Dominico may come off as this regardless, he ''especially'' comes off as this way in the PS2 version. We see someone who is an absolute ''JerkAss'' to his servant (David), but when said servant ''still'' protects him despite the horrible treatment, suffers a MyGodWhatHaveIDone and HeelRealization and tries to mend his ways to honour David's memory. Unfortunately, one scene that was in the PS2 version showed Dominico making David eat dog food - and the scene did no real purpose since Dominico's jerkassery was ''already'' established, so it was just a pointless KickTheDog scene that bordered on MoralEventHorizon. The 3DS removed this particular scene, so Dominico's redemption has more of an impact.

* ValuesDissonance: The 3DS changes: the censorship of Jessica's outfits were actually because what the game could get away with in 2004 versus 2015 has changed.

* NightmareFuel:
** It's hard not to get chills at the cursed Castle Trodain. Or seeing [[spoiler: Rhapthorne]]'s true form for that matter.
** If the player hasn't gotten the Sun Mirror, they'll wander around the Dark Ruins until they hear Dhoulmagus's laugh before being kicked out of the dungeon.
** Even some of the enemies can be disturbing. A Capsichum, one of the first enemies in the game, is two gigantic, anthropomorphic bell peppers, ''impaled together on a kebab skewer''.
** The cut-scene where [[spoiler:Rhapthorne breaks free of the statue of the Goddess on Neos]] is rather terrifying -- particularly the [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing eyes]].
** The game's final dungeon, the Black Citadel has a rather unnerving atmosphere to it due to the later parts of the dungeon (the town section) as well as the dungeon theme.
** Though minor, it's somewhat unnerving to just go straight into battle with the Memory Lane bosses since you don't even interact with them. It doesn't help that they can [[CurbstompBattle easily demolish your entire party]] unless you're really high leveled.

** [[spoiler:Empyrea the God Bird]] is just plain unfair. Fighting a boss with stupidly high defence, an immunity to the defence lowering spells that also hits like a truck, gets to move twice and likes to remove your buffs every other turn is bad enough, but it gets worse. She can also confuse and dazzle you as well. Success in this battle generally depends on how often the boss confuses you and who gets confused. In the PS2 version, she could not confuse you, but she could heal herself at will which, given her high defense, gets annoying fast.

* CompleteMonster: [[AncientEvil Rhapthorne]], while the characters aren't initially aware of it, [[BigBad is present from the beginning to the end]], actively causing all the calamities in the game. His most heinous acts include turning the residents of the castle Trodian into [[AndIMustScream immobile plant people]]; killing the kind old woman in cold blood, after forcing her to come out by holding her son hostage); and ordering the murder of an unborn child of the Godbird Empryea. He also did most of his work by performing GrandTheftMe, which trapped the victims of that into [[AndIMustScream mental torture]].

** [[spoiler:Empyrea the God Bird]] is just plain unfair. Fighting a boss with stupidly high defence, an immunity to the defence lowering spells that also hits like a truck, gets to move twice and likes to remove your buffs every other turn is bad enough, but it gets worse. She can also confuse and dazzle you as well. Success in this battle generally depends on how often the boss confuses you and who gets confused.

* EarlyGameHell: The game starts off a little difficult, mostly for the fact that you only have two characters, and the game isn't afraid to toss encounters with up to five or six enemies at once within the first ''two hours'' of gameplay. Sure, they may be tossing you against enemies who only deal ScratchDamage at best but when you're hit with up to five or six times in a row, it starts adding up. You really ''really'' need a boomerang. But once Jessica joins, things start getting far easier. [[ThatOneBoss Until Dhoulmagus]], [[spoiler: Evil Jessica]], and Empyrea.

* LateCharacterSyndrome: Red and Morrie in the 3DS version. The game isn't over when they join (a good 10-20 hours, depending on how much the player decides to do sidequests), but by that point, it may be a little difficult incorporating them into the party, especially if one is unsure on how to upgrade them since there are no take-backs.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the [=US=] version, when reaching max tension with the hero, the form he would take appeared to be that pink haired super sayian. flash foward 12-13 years later, and Super Saiyan Rose debuts.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Rhapthorne]] is one of the most repulsive villains in the Dragon Quest series. While the characters aren't initially aware of it, Rhapthorne is present from the beginning to the end, actively causing all the calamities in the game. His most heinous acts include turning the residents of the castle Trodain into [[AndIMustScream immobile plant people]], killing Marta in cold blood (after forcing her to come out by holding her son hostage), destroying the Holy Isle of Neos, and ordering the murder of the unborn child of the Godbird Empyrea. He also did most of his work by performing GrandTheftMe, which trapped the victims of that into [[AndIMustScream mental torture]].

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: In contrast to the general CultClassic status of the series outside Japan. When it comes to entries that the western fanbase has at least heard about, this is the ''Dragon Quest'' equivalent to ''Final Fantasy VII''.